In the blink of an eye, Annan was closing in on Bernardino.

The moment he swung his sword, the sky around him seemed to suddenly light up.

That is undoubtedly an illusion.

As Annan approached Bernardino less than five meters away, he suddenly felt an unprecedented resistance.

He took two steps forward by inertia, and the invisible resistance became stronger.

It's like you're being swallowed up in transparent glue.

Annan felt a very strong pressure in his chest - in just a moment, his body was completely frozen, and even breathing became very difficult.

His movements became unusually slow...... Annan even felt the bones in his right arm creaking and shattering.

Annan realized—it seemed to be some kind of strong defensive barrier, or a restriction and imprisonment of the individual.

It's not the spell style of the School of Disability...... It's more like the Imperial School or the Idol School.

But the next moment, Annan noticed.

At the moment when his movements were suddenly forbidden by some invisible force.

The boning knife thrown from behind him passed through Annan's armpit at unabated speed and stabbed straight into Bernardino's right shoulder!

…… Only banned himself, but did not ban the boning knife?

Annan narrowed his eyes slightly, noticing this detail.

After the boning knife pierced Bernardino's body, it shattered and dissolved into nothingness, and when it burst, the wound was further expanded, and a viscous, hot, unusually bright red liquid immediately flowed from Bernardino's wound.

The huge impact made Bernardino sway his whole body, stumble by the boning knife, and almost fell down.

“…… Annan? ”

But Bernardino didn't exhale pain - as if he didn't feel pain at all, he frowned and looked back with a somewhat complicated expression: "Did you actually come at this time......

He did not immediately attack Annan.

At this time, Annan simply gave up the idea of continuing to advance forward.

He didn't recognize what spell he was bound by.

At this time, the best thing is to withdraw first.

Annan made a big jump, clinging to the ground and jumping backwards.

The bones of his right arm had already developed small cracks in the confrontation just now, his muscles were also strained, and the entire right arm swelled unusually quickly.

Annan immediately checked his health stats.

88%。

Although he injured his most important right arm, he didn't lose a lot of health......

Annan quickly retreated as he pulled out a powerful healing potion from his bag, bit off the stopper, and put it in his mouth.

In addition, he also took out the Philosopher's Stone at the same time.

…… You still have to use the Philosopher's Stone, otherwise you won't even have the power to fight Bernardino.

If you haven't reached the Golden Rank...... He couldn't even see where or when the golden-tier spirits guarding Bernardino were attacking him.

Without thinking, Annan injected the Philosopher's Stone into his heart.

He had planned to drag it out and wait for the player to come over.

Now it seems that it may not be able to catch up.

"It's actually the Philosopher's Stone."

Seeing Annan's actions, Bernardino smiled slightly, and said in a somewhat contrived tone: "You actually want to defeat me through the Philosopher's Stone-"

"You're wrong."

Annan denied it.

"I didn't intend to rely on the Philosopher's Stone to defeat you."

"Then you-"

"I'm going to use the power of the Philosopher's Stone to make us fight fairly."

Annan said slowly, word by word: "And then......

"In my own strength, I will kill you."

He felt a strong heartbeat.

Even the eardrum is pumping to the rhythm of the heartbeat.

A strange force made the blood in his whole body begin to become agitated.

It was a burning sensation in which the blood was starting to boil.

It's not pain.

It's like huddled in a warm quilt on a winter night...... It's warm enough to make you almost sleepy.

The runes glowing with golden light flowed from his heart and spread quickly throughout his body.

Wrists, shoulders, chest, abdomen, back, cheeks, forehead, legs......

[Level up, currently level 26]

[Level up, current level 31]

The subtitles flow through at a very fast speed and eventually slowly stagnate:

[Level up, current level 48]

【Element Extraction——】

【Blood Element: Frost (100%)】

[Soul Elements: Radiance (100%), Wisdom (45%), Glory (10%), Beauty (13%), Strictness (6%)]

It's just a time to sweep it away.

Annan will be able to judge...... Compared to last time, both the level and the degree of element extraction have gone further than last time.

Level 48...... The limit state of the Truth Rank should only be level 50.

Does the Philosopher's Stone really have this power?

Or is it ...... Only I'm special?

In Annan's mind, such doubts flashed.

A strong glow rose from his mind—and in Annan's eyes, the whole world became bright.

[Elemental Manifestation: Frost, Radiance]

【Perfect Manifestation】

[The truth is manifesting-]

【Book of Cranes 3/6】

[Available Truths: The Undead, the Path of Ascension and Transformation, the Number of Beasts]

Annan exhaled a cold breath suddenly.

His clothes weren't completely torn apart by the force this time.

But there were also tattered "rifts".

Behind Annan, a pair of wings protruded from his shoulders and waist.

A pair of fingers held high to the sky.

A pair of drooping covers.

The runes have also "opened their eyes".

This time there is a subtle difference from the last transformation.

Not only had the number of eyes doubled to eighty—all of them had turned into silver pupils.

And between the eyes, there are also more silver traces, connecting them to each other.

Even the short sword in Annan's hand had an extra eye on its sword.

…… Ah, I see.

Annan said silently.

Whether it's Denton's spirits...... Or the man I've never met.

Or in the void, the black clay figures that are frantically beating and fighting, and the half-body monsters burning with crimson flames, hands like dogs' heads like eagles, and straight backs.

- That's the sublime prosthetic of the two.

I saw them all.

The strength and weakness of the two, the remaining strength, the essence of the Black Tower, the essence of the elements of both sides......

Even if you haven't opened your eyes yet...... Also "seen".

Although it is still very vague and the information is not complete, Annan did receive the real information with the eyes on his body.

…… Three minutes, that's enough.

There's a real chance to win –

The moment Annan opened his eyes again, the sky was completely obscured by dark clouds that had been summoned out of thin air.

Whether it's daylight, moonlight, or starlight.

In front of Annan, all of them became dim.

Even the glow of the blazing fire above the Black Tower was at least three times dimmer.

The only bright light source between heaven and earth is Annan.

And his own pupils were completely silver, emotionless vertical pupils.

His silver hair was windless and automatic, and the hunt flew backwards.

"Bernardino ......"

Annan's mouth did not move: "Do you want to escape from your fate." ”

An extremely ethereal voice sounded out of thin air between heaven and earth.

It was as if instinctively feeling threatened.

The black, oil-like half-body attempted to return from the battlefield ahead.

His noble prosthesis is much more perfect than the last time Annan saw it.

No longer a completely blurred, half-humanoid silhouette.

I can already see the outline of my facial features and the muscles on my body, and even from my chest to my waist. Compared to the half-human, half-eagle, half-dog monster of the Hugo Tower Lord, who was burning with flames and couldn't see anything clearly, it was clearly superior.

But at this time, Hugo's sublime prosthetic suddenly hugged Bernardino's sublime prosthetic as if he realized something.

The next moment, the pouring ice rain fell violently!

The white ice mist condensed and colluded into many dense thorns on the burning black tower, completely enveloping Bernardino's body.

A white ice mist composed of countless sharp ice crystals completely covered the top of the Black Tower.

And behind Annan.

A dragon's head that shone from the inside out, made entirely of ice, was silently formed in the ice mist.

It flew through the fog and bit Bernardino!

(End of chapter)